A Common Hour, by Sita Walker

Who would be a teacher? Set in a Queensland state high school, the action is packed into the lunch hour - broken into 15 minute segments that are divided into flashbacks of years and decades that delve into the background and motivation of the story’s many and varied characters. These include popular English teacher Paul ‘Bushy’ Bush, his senior students, fellow teachers and the school Head, Freedom Cook. The forest adjoining the school, where much of the lunchtime activity takes place, is almost a character itself. A student with an old grudge uses social media to trigger a crisis that will cause profound change in many lives, especially Bushy’s. Will students and teachers turn and pile on or rally around? Mental health, bullying, burnout, family violence, thwarted relationships, intergenerational trauma and young love – it’s all dealt with over that crowded hour. The time jumps can get a bit much, necessary as they are to uncover the truth of complex relationships. Despite its dark themes a vein of humour underpins this often difficult tale, boosted by a sense of quiet faith in the essential goodness of people and a hope that this can overcome the darkness.

Turns of Fate, by Anne Bishop

Junior detective Beth Fahey has joined a special unit of the police force tasked with investigating crimes linked to the supernatural. This involves liaising with the Isle of Wyrd, a place where the human world touches and interacts with an otherworld of the Arcana. The unit has a high turnover as dealing with the uncanny is not for everyone, but despite her inexperience Beth has an unusual affinity with Wyrd. This puts her at risk and she finds she needs to uncover secrets from her past to be able to make decisions about her future and perhaps change her fate. Words have power; intentions matter. This new world holds some similarities with Bishop’s Others series in its relationships between humans and other beings and the police force plays a similarly important role. But the Arcana are more related to myth and legend, with some recognisable figures and scenarios. Familiar themes are also present, in particular wealthy people who put themselves above the law and the battle with populist nativism and toxic masculinity that holds much resonance with today’s real world issues. With a few loose ends left to tantalise about what may come there is sure to be a sequel to explore more of this fascinating new culture. Can’t wait.

Murder in the Cathedral, by Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher and her loyal companion, Dot, travel to Bendigo for the inauguration of her friend Lionel as Bishop. Unfortunately the grand occasion is marred by the untimely death of an unpopular deacon. Using planes and trains more than automobiles, Miss Fisher helps the police to solve the murder, also putting paid to a gold mining scam along the way. This tale benefits from a reduction in the roles of Phryne’s staff, henchmen and adopted children, who all play very minor parts in the action. The focus on fashion and food is always enjoyable, but several (largely unnecessary) coincidences and tangents divert from the story rather than add to it, particularly the array of people that turn up in Bendigo. The Chinese lesbian love subplot resolves a storyline from an earlier book that many readers would neither remember nor care about. But the Morris dancing is fun and this is a welcome return to form after a few duds and a great way to end the Phryne Fisher saga, as there will be no more with the untimely death of Kerry Greenwood.

The Eights, by Joanna Miller

In 1920 women are officially admitted to degree courses at Oxford for the first time, but with restrictions on their dress, behaviour and social lives that do not apply to male students. Four young women - Beatrice, Dora, Otto and Marianne - live in corridor eight of St Hugh’s College. They have little in common, apart from the post-war trauma that affects so many of their peers, but become firm friends and allies. The story of their first year at University, with all its trials, tribulations and triumphs, unfolds as they face discrimination, abuse and misogyny from many quarters. Miller clearly did a lot of research and many of the finer details the reader doesn’t need to know; the tactic of putting them in the mouth of geeky Beatrice doesn’t make it any less didactic. It’s a really interesting setting and the examination of difficult mother-daughter relationships adds depth, but some story elements are hard to swallow.

When You Burn Me, by Lorelei Johnson

Sienna is a light witch, raised by her aunt in a progressive coven after the death of her parents when she was a child. They were guardians of the light, brutally murdered by a vicious dark coven, the Order of Erris, seeking what they were guarding. So there is consternation in her coven when Sienna finds herself both under threat from the Order and entangled with a dark warlock. Can she trust him when he says he wants to help her against the Order, or does Damon have his own agenda? This independently published dark fantasy novel has a high quality look and feel. Unfortunately the contents don’t quite live up to it. While the characters are well drawn, the plot is unconvincing and the text is riddled with typos. It’s a pity more wasn’t spent on the editing and proofreading, rather than the paper quality and cover art. With the best will in the world to support independent local authors, the meh storyline does not inspire the impetus to read the further two books in the Enchanted Hearts series.

The Wedding People, by Alison Espach

After many failed rounds of IVF, a failed marriage and a dead cat, academic Phoebe has had enough of life and travels to a luxury hotel in Newport to end it on a high note. But Lila has booked out the entire hotel, apart from Phoebe’s room, for her six-day wedding extravaganza and she is not having a suicide wreck her big event. Against all odds the two women become friends, or at least trusted collaborators, both finding a new path that offers a hopeful future. Phoebe and Lila both take a similar journey of self-discovery, although with quite different outcomes. They get to know themselves and what they really want and how to go about getting it. It’s an interesting and often amusing examination of familial and friend relationships with a satisfying conclusion.

Murder on North Terrace, by Lainie Anderson

It is September 1917 and a member of the Board of Governors has been found murdered in the art gallery on Adelaide’s North Terrace. This sequel to The Death of Dora Black sees Woman Police Constable Kate Cocks’s offsider Ethel Bromley seconded to use her society contacts to help investigate the murder. Left overstretched and under resourced, Miss Cox struggles to keep the women and children of Adelaide safe, with the added worry of a rapist leaving a young girl for dead in the parklands. In the wearying fourth year of the war there are both demobbed and newly recruited soldiers to deal with as well. Lainie Anderson’s chops as an historian provides a fascinating window into Adelaide in the 1910s alongside a cracking mystery with engaging, if flawed, heroines.